Serene’s POV

I opened my eyes and found myself in the infirmary. Ayrden and Ralph were standing near me with worried looks on their faces. As soon as they saw me opening my eyes, they chuckled with joy.

"Welcome to the land of the living sleeping beauty. You gave us quite a scare." Ralph tried to tease me.

"How are you feeling, now? What happened?" Ayrden took my hand in hers and squeezed gently, her face squirming with worry.

"Ahh, I am a bit clumsy you know. Always bumping into people. This time, I slipped and bumped my head on the floor. Then I lost consciousness." I blatantly lied to my friends.

"That’s why I said I would come with you. I had a bad feeling about this." Ralph narrowed his eyes. "Frela found you unconscious, lying in your pool of blood. The poor girl almost had a heart attack. We were all so worried. Artins Sensei was very furious, he thought someone had hurt you." Ayrden filled me in.

"No, no that was all me and don’t worry it’s just a minor injury. I can’t believe I fainted, everyone is going to think I am weak." I was furious with myself.

"It’s not a minor injury, you lost a lot of blood. And, you have to stay here for a day or two." Ralph’s tone was serious now.

"What? no, we have a tournament to win. I need to practice." Defiance evident in my voice.

"Don’t be ridiculous, you need to rest. Until and unless you are fully recovered there will be no practice for you. Head injury is not supposed to be taken lightly." Artins Sensei had just come in and his authoritative voice echoed through the whole infirmary.

"Yes, Sensei," I respectfully nodded, my head was covered with bandages.

"Who did this to you? Physically hurting a fellow student is punishable by expulsion. Give me the names of those who were involved." Artins Sensei ordered me.

I knew it would open up a whole new mess of things if I told him. I couldn’t comprehend completely what had happened. Until and unless I spoke to Arlo I wasn’t going to say anything. So, I told him the exact same story.

"Hmm, I can’t believe you got so clumsy to fall and injure yourself so badly. Are you sure you are not hiding anything from us? Because I will find out the truth." Artins Sensei was as furious as ever.

"No, Sensei. I am telling the truth." I couldn’t believe how I was telling lies so blatantly. My heartbeat had increased and my hands were getting sweaty. Thank goodness that none of them was a vampire who could have sensed my alleviated heartbeat.

"Now, now let her rest all of you." Mariela Sensei waved them all out as she handed me a vial of medicine. Ralph and Ayrden waved at me before leaving while Artins Sensei murmured something in Mariela Sensei’s ear to which she said:

"I understand."

"Sorry, Mariela Sensei I couldn’t reach you earlier." I apologized.

"Not to worry, I just wanted to hand over some Elixirs to Sarim Sensei. That’s why I asked Dria to call you." So she wasn’t lying after all. They were pretty smart and always thought everything through so nothing could circle back to them.

The medicine made me drowsy and soon I was in a deep slumber. I dreamt that Zeph had come to see me, he was standing at the door looking at me with a concerned expression. Suddenly, I woke up drenched in my sweat. Why was it so damn hot in here? Night time had fallen and blue light from one of the moons filtered through the window, falling on my bed. I looked around and found Mariela Sensei sitting on a chair.

"Glad you are awake. Hungry?" She asked.

"Yes," I replied meekly.

"I have ordered food for you." She handed me another vial. "After you eat take this. I will leave you for a while with your friends and will be back in a few hours."

The door flung open and Arlo entered with a tray of food. I gulped so hard and my eyes widened with shock but I bowed my head to hide my expression.

"Serene, Arlo will stay with you for a while and then Ayrden and Ralph will come over. I have permitted them. But, don’t stay up too long, you need your rest." She told me in her dominating voice before leaving and shutting the door behind her.

Arlo began to get closer to me with the food tray. "Stay away from me," I shouted at him.

He stopped in his tracks. "You, do realise I was putting up a front earlier to save you." He replied in a calm and collected voice, unlike mine.

"So, you are saying she is not your psychotic girlfriend, whom you failed to mention to anyone." I blurted out.

"She and I are complicated, I like keeping my personal life personal, and no she is not my girlfriend. I wouldn’t express my feelings for someone if I already had a girlfriend." He didn’t budge or raise his voice.

"I thought we were friends." I looked up at him.

"We are, you mean a lot more to me than just a friend. And, I apologize for the way I treated you earlier. Give me some time, everything will become clear to you. Not in a million years, I could think of hurting you. It broke me seeing you that way..." He trailed off, his eyes looked sad and hurt. His face was distorted with anger and dejection. I had never seen him so broken.

I wasn’t sure what to believe. "I am not mad at you because you might have a secret girlfriend or the way you treated me. You are free to choose anyone you want, I am no one to bind you. But, you were my safe space, someone I could trust. That was violated, I, don’t trust you anymore." I confessed my feelings.

"Serene, you have to trust me. Please, give me a chance to prove myself. Just a few more days, I will tell you everything." He almost pleaded with me this time, his expression soft.

"I can’t trust you right now, but I will give you another chance to be my friend. Don’t make me regret this." I replied trying very hard to stop my voice from trembling.

"Thanks, now eat something." He placed the tray in front of me, which contained egg rice, fried chicken, kebab, a glass of milk and chocolate cake; all my favourite foods.

"Thank you, for bringing me food." He nodded at my words.

" How is your head? " He asked with concern. "Throbbing but better," I replied with my mouth full of rice. He sat there watching me eat with one hand on his cheek while his elbow rested on my bed.

Just then the door opened and Ayrden, Ralph and Mikasim barged in. All three of them were arguing over something. As soon as they saw me they stopped arguing and rushed towards me, with Mikasim in lead. "Are you alright? I was so worried when I heard." Mikasim’s face showed all emotions as usual.

"I am alright, don’t worry. Did Tanzil let you finally visit me?" I teased him and everyone tried to hide their smiles even Arlo.

"Glad you are alright, and shhh she doesn’t know I am here. She is having a girl’s night with her friends so I sneaked here." He placed a finger on his lips.

"I understand Mikasim, even if you didn’t come. I don’t want you to get in trouble with her." I smiled reassuringly at him.

"I won’t, you don’t worry." He reassured me.

Ralph had brought me flowers which he placed on my side table. " Thanks, Ralph, that’s very kind of you." They were beautiful flowers with pink and purple petals and filled the room with their sweet scent.

All of them sat around me as Ralph began to tell jokes sending us all to roll in guffaws of laughter.

Even Arlo stayed and I could see him trying to hold back his smile. I knew who that girl was and why Arlo didn’t say anything to her at that point. I wished I was wrong but only time will tell who was on whose side. It made my heart swell to be surrounded by friends and I wished we stayed that way and deep down I desired for Zeph to be here as well.